St. Patrick's Celebrations, Naples Florida

Oh, Hennessee, Tennessee, Tootle the flute, and the music was something grand ........ It's a grand day to celebrate St. Patrick in Naples.

We had breakfast at an outside cafe and then watched the raising of the flag and the blessing for the parade and festivities of the day at the Clayton Cove Center. There will be a parade at 11 am and all of the festivities take place on Fifth Ave S. Apparently St. Patrick's Day is a big thing in Naples and we were advised that it was worthwhile to stay and participate.

We arrived in Naples last Sunday. Wanted to spend a couple of days here to experience Naples. This is now Saturday, and it doesn't look like we will be moving on for another couple of days.

The bilge pump had been running often and Peter decided to have a look to see where the water was coming from. He found that the deck wash pump was leaking a little, so he fixed that. At the same time he noticed that the holding tank was also leaking. On further inspection he found two cracks in the tank, so out it had to come. While searching on the internet for tanks and solutions, he talked to our friends at Harbour Marine in Toronto and was told that it could be fixed by plastic welding it together. Never heard of this. A new idea. So back onto the internet to find a plastic welding kit and to get it overnight delivered. The plan was for it to be here on Friday. Well Friday has come and gone and no plastic welding kit yet.

Captain Peter installing GFO to stuffing box

We have got other things that we ordered, GFO GoreTex packing for the stuffing box. Apparently once installed prevents leaking from the shaft. Peter is replacing the old stuffing with the new GFO. I really hope he is successful so the boat doesn't sink in the process. Or I hope that the bilge pump stays ahead of the flow. The pump is coming on and off. Peter says it should be comforting that the pump shuts off.  He is wearing his life jacket. Should I be concerned? So far so good. He is installing the second piece. All seems to be going well. These processes always unnerve me. Probably because I don't really know much about it, and always go to what is the worst that can happen. Then I live there on high alert waiting for instructions about damage control, and hope that I can fulfill my responsibilities should such an event arise.

The depth sounder for the Raymarine system never worked properly. It would run for awhile and then lose the connection. Sometimes it would come back on and other times I would have to go down and shut the system off and then turn back on. Very frustrating. The only time you look at the water depth is when you think it could be shallow.

The next leg of our trip will be travelling in shallow waters all the way, and dragging a 5' 6" keel around, we will want to know the depth on a regular basis.  Peter maintains that the keel is the real time depth sounder. When the boat slows down, and the bow goes down, and the back comes up ..... we know we are in less than 5.5' of water.

Being as we plan to be here for a few days, it is a good time to see how to fix this. Back on line to do some reading. The internet is a wonderful thing. This is a common problem. Peter overheard another boater on the dock talking about his faulty depth sounder. He found what appeared to be a simple solution. Raymarine has an update on line as the fix. Just download it and update the unit. Now how simple is that. NOT.

The process took 2 days. First we had to find a compact flashcard. A very outdated component. The first day was spent trying to find where we could get one. Would you believe Walgreens. A bike ride to success. Then to download the update for the system. Trying to follow the instructions, which are for a PC and no instructions for a Mac. Read the instructions to determine what they were trying to do and then mess around with the Mac to achieve the same result. Think we got it. Now to follow the instructions of how to update the system. Only to find out that the download was not compatible with our system. Call Raymarine tech. They said we had to update the depth sounder system itself (DSM) OK. Get the download and try again. After about 1.5 hours we finally had it completed after many attempts. Alls well that ends well. We now have the most recent upgrade for the chartplotter base unit and the depth sounder on the system. Appears to be working. The test will be whether the depth sounder remains connected while running. Our next leg takes us to Marco Island and it will be a good test for the system.

Feeding time on the docks.

At the Naples Town Dock there is a ritual with the pelicans. As the captains clean their catch of the day, the pelicans gather around in the hopes of getting a free meal. Some are in the water below the cleaning station, while others are bold enough to line up on the dock and on the second cleaning station. One of the pelicans has no foot, so we call him "Footless", others on the dock call him "Gimpy". Apparently he is to get fed first ahead of the others. He is quite healthy looking and doesn't appear to have missed many meals.

"Footless" or "Gimpy"

Back to the stuffing box story. The engine is running, and the captain has asked for some cleaning supplies. The bilge pump is off and hasn't run for a couple of minutes. I think it is another successful maintenance project performed by a confident Captain Peter and a more relaxed first mate Cheryl.

Three success stories out of four. Leaky deck wash pump, fixed.  Depth Sounder and Chartplotter operating on most recent update. State of the art, GFO packing for the stuffing box installed. Now the only thing left is for the plastic welder to arrive and allow us to fix the holding tank.

Almost forgot another success story. Flat tire on Peter's bike, fixed. New tube installed, end of problem. He has peddled his a.. all over Naples. Everything seems to be located 2 to 3 miles from the boat. He even has my bike adjusted so that I can keep up with him now. Yahoo!

Pelicans abound on an abandoned dock

I have to keep him away from fixing things. Before he got out of the locker he said "How do you feel about buying a new hot water tank"? This one is leaking. Into every day a little rain must fall. Just when you think you have got ahead of things something new arises. We will be back to the internet on a search for a hot water tank. Eventually we will get to the end of the list. Perhaps this will be the end of things that leak on the boat, once we have fixed it.

All things considered, the holding tank is the priority. I will take a leaking hot water tank over a leaking holding tank any day!

We will celebrate our successes by celebrating St. Patrick's Day with the locals.